The Eurofighter Typhoon is 52 feet of carbon composites, titanium and agile avionics. But at the heart of its supersonic jet engines, Rolls Royce uses components made on a Cornish industrial estate.

The manufacturer, WES Engineering of Redruth, is just one of the growing number of Cornish companies teaming up to enter the lucrative but strictly controlled aerospace defence market, through a Cornwall Enterprise-led network scheme.

The Cornwall Aerospace Defence Initiative, or CADI, was unveiled to potential members and customers at the National Maritime Museum before Christmas and, this Wednesday, will reach out to the likes of BAE Systems, Westland, Rolls Royce and Airbus at a major event in Bristol.

December's presentation saw more than 10 Cornish companies apply to join CADI's five founder members, no mean achievement, given the highly specialised nature of the industry. This week sees the group represented at the Annual Conference of the West of England Aerospace Forum, where they will rub shoulders with some of the industry's biggest names.

CADI is chaired by former Camborne and Cornwall rugby player Paul Ranford. "The South West is one of the world's most important defence regions, manufacturing a third of all the UK's output; however, it is tightly regulated, and independent Cornish companies have historically found it difficult to obtain the right accreditations to get our piece of that pie," he said.

Falmouth-based Armada Marine Hydraulics, another CADI member, confirmed this week that it had secured an important contract with RNAS Culdrose, to maintain the hydraulic system on flight simulators used to train the base's helicopter pilots.

Meanwhile, aluminium products from Redruth's Advanced Metals now go into Westland helicopters, including Sea Kings similar to the ones at the Helston base; and Righton Ltd, which already holds well over half a million pounds' worth of defence-specific stock at its Saltash site, plans to move into aerospace imminently.

"Success in the defence and aerospace industries relies upon approvals paperwork", says Alison Parker of Advanced Metals. "They need to have absolute confidence in their materials, so everything needs to be carefully matched, double-checked, certificated and traceable, and so each customer conducts an extensive audit of the quality procedures on every site they buy from.

John Berry, Managing Director of Cornwall Enterprise, said: "We are seeing how well it works when individual Cornish businesses take a collaborative approach, securing larger contracts through their combined skills, abilities and resources than they could attract or fulfil alone."